Deniable obfuscation of user locations

ABSTRACT

Aspects of the invention include receiving, using a processing system, a geographic location of a user. A trust level of an application is determined. Based at least in part on the trust level of the application meeting a threshold, the geographic location of the user is transmitted to the application. Based at least in part on the trust level of the application not meeting the threshold, a semantic label associated with the geographic location of the user is determined. The semantic label describes a type of place located at the geographic location of the user. An obfuscated geographic location that preserves the privacy of the geographic location of the user and is associated with a semantic label consistent with the semantic label associated with the geographic location of the user is generated. The obfuscated geographic location is transmitted to the application in place of the geographic location of the user.

DOMESTIC PRIORITY

This application is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No.15/489,887, filed Apr. 18, 2017, the content of which is incorporated byreference herein in its entirety

BACKGROUND

Embodiments of the invention relate in general to user locationinformation, and more specifically to deniable obfuscation of userlocations.

Mobile technology has accelerated the pace at which people access,acquire and generate data. Users are often concerned with protectinginformation that they consider to be private, such as their currentgeographic location. These privacy concerns can conflict with mobiledevice application functionality which often relies on knowing a currentlocation of a user.

SUMMARY

Embodiments of the invention include methods, systems, and computerprogram products for implementing deniable obfuscation of userlocations. A non-limiting example method includes receiving, using aprocessing system, a geographic location of a user. A trust level of anapplication is determined. Based at least in part on the trust level ofthe application meeting a threshold, the geographic location of the useris transmitted to the application. Based at least in part on the trustlevel of the application not meeting the threshold, a semantic labelassociated with the geographic location of the user is determined. Thesemantic label describes a type of place located at the geographiclocation of the user. An obfuscated geographic location that preservesthe privacy of the geographic location of the user and is associatedwith a semantic label consistent with the semantic label associated withthe geographic location of the user is generated. The obfuscatedgeographic location is transmitted to the application in place of thegeographic location of the user.

Additional features and advantages are realized through the techniquesof the present invention. Other embodiments and aspects of the inventionare described in detail herein and are considered a part of the claimedinvention. For a better understanding of the invention with theadvantages and the features, refer to the description and to thedrawings.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The subject matter which is regarded as the invention is particularlypointed out and distinctly claimed in the claims at the conclusion ofthe specification. The forgoing and other features, and advantages ofthe invention are apparent from the following detailed description takenin conjunction with the accompanying drawings in which:

FIG. 1 is a flow diagram of a process for deniable obfuscation of userlocations in accordance with one or more embodiments of the invention;

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of a system for deniable obfuscation of userlocations in accordance with one or more embodiments of the invention;

FIG. 3 is a flow diagram of a process performed by a location generatorfor performing deniable obfuscation of user locations in accordance withone or more embodiments of the invention; and

FIG. 4 is a block diagram of a computing device for implementing some orall aspects of a system for deniable obfuscation of user locations inaccordance with one or more embodiments of the invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

One or more embodiments of the invention described herein provideobfuscated geographic locations to selected applications in place ofactual user geographic locations. The obfuscation is deniable in that anobfuscated geographic location has characteristics that are similar tothe actual user location and it appears to the receiving application tobe the actual user location. One or more embodiments of the presentinvention assist users in protecting their privacy by not revealing auser's actual geographic location or trajectory to an application unlessit is required for the application to function properly. In accordancewith one or more embodiments of the invention, the user's privacy isprotected without impacting the functionality of the applications thatutilize the user's geographic location.

User privacy can often conflict with application functionality. Forexample, navigation applications require access to the actual locationof a user in order to provide directions from a current geographiclocation of the user to a target geographic location of the user. Otherapplications use authentication logic that requires access to a user'sFacebook profile. Sometimes the functionality of an application mayjustify the privacy degradation (e.g., navigation applications) andother times it may not (e.g., contextual advertising, analytics,cross-application profiling). At the same time, if fake, or obfuscated,data is served to an application, there is the possibility that theapplication will notice that the data has been changed and suspend itsfunctionality.

In accordance with one or more embodiments of the invention describedherein, an application cannot tell when the user location data that itaccesses has been obfuscated to hide the actual geographic location ofthe user. In addition, because certain use cases justify access to theactual user geographic location, the decision on when and how toobfuscate the user location becomes contextual. One or more embodimentsof the invention provide deniable obfuscation, which, similar todeniable encryption, is based at least in part on the concept ofenabling multiple views of the same data with varying degrees ofdistortion, all of which are indistinguishable.

Turning now to FIG. 1, a flow diagram 100 of a process for deniableobfuscation of user locations is generally shown in accordance with oneor more embodiments of the invention. As shown in FIG. 1, a current userlocation is input to a location generator 104, and depending on a trustlevel of the application, either the current user location or anobfuscated user location is output from the location generator 104 to anapplication. Two applications that require access to the user'sgeographic location and/or trajectory are shown in FIG. 1, namely anavigation application 106 and a gaming application 108. The navigationapplication 106 can have a high trust level because the user trusts thenavigation application 106 and understands the importance of providingactual geographic location data about the user to the functionality ofthe navigation application 106. Based at least in part on the trustlevel of the application having a high trust level and thus meeting athreshold (e.g., a trust level threshold), the location generator 104outputs the actual or current user geographic location to the navigationapplication 106.

The navigation application 106 is contrasted with the gaming application108, which receives an obfuscated user location because it is associatedwith a lower level of trust and therefore does not meet the threshold.For example, the gaming application 108 can be programmed to send analert to the user when the user enters his home or office. The actualgeographic location of the user is not critical to this functionality ofthe gaming application 108, as the gaming application 108 is using thegeographical location solely to identify a semantic location of theuser. In this example, the gaming application 108 will perform the alertfunction as long as the geographical location corresponds to a semanticlabel of home or office. An obfuscated user location can be sent to thegaming application 108 and as long as it corresponds to a location withthe same semantic label as the current user location, the functionalityof the gaming application will not be impacted.

As shown in FIG. 1, in accordance with one or more embodiments of theinvention, different geographic locations, each representing ageographic location of the user, are sent to the different applications.The level of obfuscation of a geographic location, if any, is based atleast in part on a trust level associated with the application. Thetrust level of an application can be user modifiable and entered by theuser as part of installing the application. An initial trust level of anapplication can also be automatically generated based at least in parton a type of the application or other criteria. Any number of trustlevels can be implemented by one or more embodiments of the presentinvention.

In accordance with one or more embodiments of the invention, a singlethreshold is utilized, and if an application meets the threshold, thenan actual geographic location of a user is sent to the application. Ifthe application does meet the threshold, then an obfuscated geographiclocation is sent to the application. In this example the obfuscatedgeographic location can be any geographical location that has the samesemantic label as the actual geographic location of the user. Inaddition, the obfuscated geographic location can also be consistent witha location trajectory (current or past) of the user or a population ofusers that includes the user, which may increase the probability ofretaining plausibility of the obfuscated geographic location.

In accordance with one or more embodiments of the invention, a pluralityof thresholds is utilized, with each threshold associated with adifferent level of obfuscation. For example, if a semantic location isthe user's office, levels of obfuscation can include: office, building,county, state, and country, each associated with a different threshold.In this case, if the trust level of an application does not meet thethreshold associated with the building but it does meet the thresholdassociated with the county, this means that the obfuscated user locationshould be outside of the building to hide the user's current geographiclocation, but within the county in order retain plausibility of theobfuscated user location as being valid. Similarly, a peer-to-peerapplication that relies on user input for real time traffic congestionand route planning would require precise location information about theroad segment that is currently congested but a life-logging applicationcan retain most of its functionality with a less precise level oflocation information.

Turning now to FIG. 2, a block diagram 200 of a system for deniableobfuscation of user locations is generally shown in accordance with oneor more embodiments of the present invention. In accordance with one ormore embodiments of the invention, private data is released to anapplication after applying a predetermined level of obfuscation. Thelevel of obfuscation can include no obfuscation which results inreleasing the actual user location. One or more embodiments of theinvention can include generating a probabilistic model (e.g., a Markovchain) based at least in part on multiple users. During a release event(e.g., a release of a geographic location to an application), theprivate field (e.g., user location) is mapped into a coarserepresentation such as a semantic location. Based at least in part onthe model, the coarse representation is refined into a concreterepresentation (e.g., an obfuscated geographic location).

The system shown in FIG. 2 includes one or more map(s) 202, or otherrepresentation, of semantic labels of semantic locations and theirassociated geographic locations, which are utilized by the locationgenerator 104. Semantic locations are types of places such as schools,offices, homes, etc., and a semantic label associated with a geographiclocation describes the type of place that is associated with thegeographic location.

FIG. 2 also shows a current user location 102, an application trustlevel 206, and a model of past user location trajectories 208 beinginput to the location generator 104. In accordance with one or moreembodiments of the present invention, a geographic location is specifiedas global positioning system (GPS) coordinates, or as a longitude andlatitude pair. The current user location 102 can be received from a GPSreceiver located on a user device such as a mobile device.

All or a portion of the elements shown in FIG. 2 can be located on auser device. In accordance with one or more embodiments of the presentinvention, the model of past user location trajectories 208 is generatedon a system remote from the user device. The model of past user locationtrajectories 208 can be accessed by the user device via network or canbe stored on the user device.

FIG. 2 also depicts a geographic location 204 as an output from thelocation generator 104. The geographic location 204 can be an actualuser geographic location or an obfuscated geographic location, dependingon a trust level associated with the application 210.

In accordance with one or more embodiments of the invention, thelocation generator 104 works by initially generalizing geographiclocations to higher level semantic abstractions and then instantiatingthe abstractions back to geographic locations. One way in which thelocation generator 104 can create different levels of locationgeneralization is by converting geographic locations specified aslatitude and longitude pairs into geo-hashes. The resolution of ageo-hash (i.e., how many bits have been used to specify the location)indicates the precision of the location. As the resolution is decreased(i.e., the number of bits used to specify the location decreases), theprecision of the location decreases or in other words the location isgeneralized. For example, a 128-bit geo-hash can be reduced to 120 bitsas part of generalization. The reverse process of instantiationgenerates bits to fill in the removed bits and then maps the geo-hashback to geographical latitude and longitude (there is one-to-onecorrespondence between a geo-hash and a geographic location). Anotherpossible implementation of the location generator 104 is based at leastin part on location hierarchies explicitly specified by the user. Theextent to which a series of locations will be generalized can bedetermined by the trust score and the level of privacy desired for aparticular application.

Turning now to FIG. 3, a flow diagram 300 of a process performed by alocation generator, such as location generator 104, for deniableobfuscation of user locations is generally shown in accordance with oneor more embodiments of the invention. At block 302, a geographiclocation of a user is received by the location generator 104, and atblock 304, a trust level of an application is determined. A semanticlabel associated with the received geographic location is determined atblock 306. At block 308, an obfuscated geographic location is createdbased, at least in part, on the trust level of the application and thesematic label. The obfuscated geographic location that is createdpreserves the privacy of the current geographic location of the user andis associated with a semantic label that is consistent (e.g., the same,or in the same category, etc.) with the semantic label associated withthe current geographic location of the user.

At block 310, the obfuscated user location is output to the application310 in place of the geographic location of the user. In accordance withone or more embodiments, the output to the application is in response tothe application requesting a current geographic location of the user.

In accordance with one or more embodiments of the invention, blocks 306,308, and 310 are not performed in response to the trust level of theapplication meeting a threshold, and the actual geographic location ofthe user is transmitted to the application. Blocks 306, 308, and 310 areperformed when the trust level of the application does not meet thethreshold.

In accordance with one or more embodiments of the invention, theobfuscated geographic location is also consistent with a currentlocation trajectory of the user that includes the current geographiclocation of the user. The obfuscated geographic location can also beconsistent with one or more past location trajectories of the user or apopulation of users that includes the user. In accordance with one ormore embodiments of the invention, information from different users isaggregated to form a probabilistic model for synthesis of trajectories.These concrete traces can be moved to a higher level of abstraction by,for example, mapping concrete locations to regions or to some semantictag (e.g., work, home, supermarket, etc.). The abstract representationcan be refined into a concrete trajectory per the model, wheredeniability and plausibility stem from the fact that at the abstractlevel, the actual and fake trajectories are identical.

Turning now to FIG. 4, a block diagram of a computer system 400 for usein implementing some or all aspects of a system for implementingplausible obfuscation of user location trajectories is generally shownaccording to one or more embodiments of the invention. The processingdescribed herein may be implemented in hardware, software (e.g.,firmware), or a combination thereof. In an exemplary embodiment, themethods described may be implemented, at least in part, in hardware andmay be part of the microprocessor of a special or general-purposecomputer system 400, such as a personal computer, workstation,minicomputer, or mainframe computer.

In an exemplary embodiment, as shown in FIG. 4, the computer system 400includes a processor 405, memory 410 coupled to a memory controller 415,and one or more input devices 445 and/or output devices 440, such asperipherals, that are communicatively coupled via a local I/O controller435. These devices 440 and 445 may include, for example, a printer, ascanner, a microphone, and the like. A conventional keyboard 450 andmouse 455 may be coupled to the I/O controller 435. The I/O controller435 may be, for example, one or more buses or other wired or wirelessconnections, as are known in the art. The I/O controller 435 may haveadditional elements, which are omitted for simplicity, such ascontrollers, buffers (caches), drivers, repeaters, and receivers, toenable communications.

The I/O devices 440, 445 may further include devices that communicateboth inputs and outputs, for instance disk and tape storage, a networkinterface card (NIC) or modulator/demodulator (for accessing otherfiles, devices, systems, or a network), a radio frequency (RF) or othertransceiver, a telephonic interface, a bridge, a router, and the like.

The processor 405 is a hardware device for executing hardwareinstructions or software, particularly those stored in memory 410. Theprocessor 405 may be a custom made or commercially available processor,a central processing unit (CPU), an auxiliary processor among severalprocessors associated with the computer system 400, a semiconductorbased microprocessor (in the form of a microchip or chip set), amacroprocessor, or other device for executing instructions. Theprocessor 405 can include a cache such as, but not limited to, aninstruction cache to speed up executable instruction fetch, a data cacheto speed up data fetch and store, and a translation look-aside buffer(TLB) used to speed up virtual-to-physical address translation for bothexecutable instructions and data. The cache may be organized as ahierarchy of more cache levels (L1, L2, etc.).

The memory 410 may include one or combinations of volatile memoryelements (e.g., random access memory, RAM, such as DRAM, SRAM, SDRAM,etc.) and nonvolatile memory elements (e.g., ROM, erasable programmableread only memory (EPROM), electronically erasable programmable read onlymemory (EEPROM), programmable read only memory (PROM), tape, compactdisc read only memory (CD-ROM), disk, diskette, cartridge, cassette orthe like, etc.). Moreover, the memory 410 may incorporate electronic,magnetic, optical, or other types of storage media. Note that the memory410 may have a distributed architecture, where various components aresituated remote from one another but may be accessed by the processor405.

The instructions in memory 410 may include one or more separateprograms, each of which comprises an ordered listing of executableinstructions for implementing logical functions. In the example of FIG.4, the instructions in the memory 410 include a suitable operatingsystem (OS) 411. The operating system 411 essentially may control theexecution of other computer programs and provides scheduling,input-output control, file and data management, memory management, andcommunication control and related services.

Additional data, including, for example, instructions for the processor405 or other retrievable information, may be stored in storage 420,which may be a storage device such as a hard disk drive or solid statedrive. The stored instructions in memory 410 or in storage 420 mayinclude those enabling the processor to execute one or more aspects ofthe dispatch systems and methods of this disclosure.

The computer system 400 may further include a display controller 425coupled to a display 430. In an exemplary embodiment, the computersystem 400 may further include a network interface 460 for coupling to anetwork 465. The network 465 may be an IP-based network forcommunication between the computer system 400 and an external server,client and the like via a broadband connection. The network 465transmits and receives data between the computer system 400 and externalsystems. In an exemplary embodiment, the network 465 may be a managed IPnetwork administered by a service provider. The network 465 may beimplemented in a wireless fashion, e.g., using wireless protocols andtechnologies, such as WiFi, WiMax, etc. The network 465 may also be apacket-switched network such as a local area network, wide area network,metropolitan area network, the Internet, or other similar type ofnetwork environment. The network 465 may be a fixed wireless network, awireless local area network (LAN), a wireless wide area network (WAN) apersonal area network (PAN), a virtual private network (VPN), intranetor other suitable network system and may include equipment for receivingand transmitting signals.

Systems and methods for providing Deniable Obfuscation of User Locationsas described herein can be embodied, in whole or in part, in computerprogram products or in computer systems 400, such as that illustrated inFIG. 4.

Technical effects and benefits of embodiments of the invention includethe ability to obfuscate actual user locations in order to protect theprivacy of a user. The obfuscated geographic locations havecharacteristics that are similar to the actual user locations and appearto a requesting application to be the actual user locations. Thus, theobfuscated geographic locations protect the privacy of the user withoutimpacting the functionality of applications that utilize the user'sgeographic locations.

The terminology used herein is for the purpose of describing particularembodiments of the invention only and is not intended to be limiting ofthe invention. As used herein, the singular forms “a”, “an” and “the”are intended to include the plural forms as well, unless the contextclearly indicates otherwise. It will be further understood that theterms “comprises” and/or “comprising,” when used in this specification,specify the presence of stated features, integers, steps, operations,elements, and/or components, but do not preclude the presence oraddition of one or more other features, integers, steps, operations,elements, components, and/or groups thereof.

The corresponding structures, materials, acts, and equivalents of allmeans or step plus function elements in the claims below are intended toinclude any structure, material, or act for performing the function incombination with other claimed elements as specifically claimed. Thedescription of the present invention has been presented for purposes ofillustration and description, but is not intended to be exhaustive orlimited to the invention in the form disclosed. Many modifications andvariations will be apparent to those of ordinary skill in the artwithout departing from the scope and spirit of the invention. Theembodiments of the invention were chosen and described in order to bestexplain the principles of the invention and the practical application,and to enable others of ordinary skill in the art to understand theinvention for various embodiments with various modifications as aresuited to the particular use contemplated.

The present invention may be a system, a method, and/or a computerprogram product. The computer program product may include a computerreadable storage medium (or media) having computer readable programinstructions thereon for causing a processor to carry out aspects of thepresent invention.

The computer readable storage medium can be a tangible device that canretain and store instructions for use by an instruction executiondevice. The computer readable storage medium may be, for example, but isnot limited to, an electronic storage device, a magnetic storage device,an optical storage device, an electromagnetic storage device, asemiconductor storage device, or any suitable combination of theforegoing. A non-exhaustive list of more specific examples of thecomputer readable storage medium includes the following: a portablecomputer diskette, a hard disk, a random access memory (RAM), aread-only memory (ROM), an erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROMor Flash memory), a static random access memory (SRAM), a portablecompact disc read-only memory (CD-ROM), a digital versatile disk (DVD),a memory stick, a floppy disk, a mechanically encoded device such aspunch-cards or raised structures in a groove having instructionsrecorded thereon, and any suitable combination of the foregoing. Acomputer readable storage medium, as used herein, is not to be construedas being transitory signals per se, such as radio waves or other freelypropagating electromagnetic waves, electromagnetic waves propagatingthrough a waveguide or other transmission media (e.g., light pulsespassing through a fiber-optic cable), or electrical signals transmittedthrough a wire.

Computer readable program instructions described herein can bedownloaded to respective computing/processing devices from a computerreadable storage medium or to an external computer or external storagedevice via a network, for example, the Internet, a local area network, awide area network and/or a wireless network. The network may comprisecopper transmission cables, optical transmission fibers, wirelesstransmission, routers, firewalls, switches, gateway computers and/oredge servers. A network adapter card or network interface in eachcomputing/processing device receives computer readable programinstructions from the network and forwards the computer readable programinstructions for storage in a computer readable storage medium withinthe respective computing/processing device.

Computer readable program instructions for carrying out operations ofthe present invention may be assembler instructions,instruction-set-architecture (ISA) instructions, machine instructions,machine dependent instructions, microcode, firmware instructions,state-setting data, or either source code or object code written in anycombination of one or more programming languages, including an objectoriented programming language such as Java, Smalltalk, C++ or the like,and conventional procedural programming languages, such as the “C”programming language or similar programming languages. The computerreadable program instructions may execute entirely on the user'scomputer, partly on the user's computer, as a stand-alone softwarepackage, partly on the user's computer and partly on a remote computeror entirely on the remote computer or server. In the latter scenario,the remote computer may be connected to the user's computer through anytype of network, including a local area network (LAN) or a wide areanetwork (WAN), or the connection may be made to an external computer(for example, through the Internet using an Internet Service Provider).In some embodiments, electronic circuitry including, for example,programmable logic circuitry, field-programmable gate arrays (FPGA), orprogrammable logic arrays (PLA) may execute the computer readableprogram instructions by utilizing state information of the computerreadable program instructions to personalize the electronic circuitry,in order to perform aspects of the present invention.

Aspects of the present invention are described herein with reference toflowchart illustrations and/or block diagrams of methods, apparatus(systems), and computer program products according to embodiments of theinvention. It will be understood that each block of the flowchartillustrations and/or block diagrams, and combinations of blocks in theflowchart illustrations and/or block diagrams, can be implemented bycomputer readable program instructions.

These computer readable program instructions may be provided to aprocessor of a general purpose computer, special purpose computer, orother programmable data processing apparatus to produce a machine, suchthat the instructions, which execute via the processor of the computeror other programmable data processing apparatus, create means forimplementing the functions/acts specified in the flowchart and/or blockdiagram block or blocks. These computer readable program instructionsmay also be stored in a computer readable storage medium that can directa computer, a programmable data processing apparatus, and/or otherdevices to function in a particular manner, such that the computerreadable storage medium having instructions stored therein comprises anarticle of manufacture including instructions which implement aspects ofthe function/act specified in the flowchart and/or block diagram blockor blocks.

The computer readable program instructions may also be loaded onto acomputer, other programmable data processing apparatus, or other deviceto cause a series of operational steps to be performed on the computer,other programmable apparatus or other device to produce a computerimplemented process, such that the instructions which execute on thecomputer, other programmable apparatus, or other device implement thefunctions/acts specified in the flowchart and/or block diagram block orblocks.

The flowchart and block diagrams in the Figures illustrate thearchitecture, functionality, and operation of possible implementationsof systems, methods, and computer program products according to variousembodiments of the present invention. In this regard, each block in theflowchart or block diagrams may represent a module, segment, or portionof instructions, which comprises one or more executable instructions forimplementing the specified logical function(s). In some alternativeimplementations, the functions noted in the block may occur out of theorder noted in the figures. For example, two blocks shown in successionmay, in fact, be executed substantially concurrently, or the blocks maysometimes be executed in the reverse order, depending upon thefunctionality involved. It will also be noted that each block of theblock diagrams and/or flowchart illustration, and combinations of blocksin the block diagrams and/or flowchart illustration, can be implementedby special purpose hardware-based systems that perform the specifiedfunctions or acts or carry out combinations of special purpose hardwareand computer instructions.

The descriptions of the various embodiments of the present inventionhave been presented for purposes of illustration, but are not intendedto be exhaustive or limited to the embodiments disclosed. Manymodifications and variations will be apparent to those of ordinary skillin the art without departing from the scope and spirit of the describedembodiments. The terminology used herein was chosen to best explain theprinciples of the embodiments, the practical application or technicalimprovement over technologies found in the marketplace, or to enableothers of ordinary skill in the art to understand the embodimentsdisclosed herein.

What is claimed is:
 1. A computer-implemented method comprising:receiving, using a processing system, a geographic location of a user;determining a trust level of an application; based at least in part onthe trust level of the application meeting a threshold, transmitting thegeographic location of the user to the application; and based at leastin part on the trust level of the application not meeting the threshold:determining a semantic label associated with the geographic location ofthe user, the semantic label describing a type of place located at thegeographic location of the user; creating an obfuscated geographiclocation that preserves the privacy of the geographic location of theuser and is associated with a semantic label consistent with thesemantic label associated with the geographic location of the user; andtransmitting the obfuscated geographic location to the application inplace of the geographic location of the user.
 2. Thecomputer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the obfuscatedgeographic location is further consistent with a location trajectory ofthe user that includes the geographic location of the user.
 3. Thecomputer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the obfuscatedgeographic location is further consistent with one or more past locationtrajectories of the user.
 4. The computer-implemented method of claim 1,wherein the semantic label associated with the obfuscated geographiclocation is the same as the semantic label associated with thegeographic location of the user.
 5. The computer-implemented method ofclaim 1, wherein the threshold includes a plurality of levels and avalue of the obfuscated geographic location varies based at least inpart on which of the plurality of levels are not met by the trust levelof the application.
 6. The computer-implemented method of claim 1,further comprising receiving a request from the application to accessthe geographic location of the user.
 7. The computer-implemented methodof claim 1, further comprising receiving a request from an otherapplication to access the geographic location of the user, andtransmitting an other obfuscated geographic location different than theobfuscated geographic location to the other application in place of thegeographic location of the user.